breweries

"Fourex, The memory of the last bottle sells the beer in the next bottle of XXXX."

Thank you for the translation.

Victorian brothers Nicholas and Edward Fitzgerald bought the site of a failing distillery on Milton Road in 1877 and opened a brewery which they named Castlemaine after a brewery they already owned in Castlemaine, Victoria. The first beer was brewed there in 1878 and was named XXX Sparkling Ale. XXXX Bitter was introduced in 1924 after Castlemaine brewery employed a German brewer, Alhois William Leitner. Cartoon character Mr Fourex appeared in advertising at the same time. In 1928 Perkins brewing company was purchased by Castlemaine Brewing to form Castlemaine Perkins Limited. Castlemaine Perkins merged with Tooheys in 1980 to form Castlemaine Tooheys and the company was acquired by Alan Bond's Bondcorp in 1985 and taken over by Lion Nathan in 1990. XXXX Gold was introduced in 1991. In 2009 Japanese company Kirin Holdings assumed 100% ownership of Lion Nathan which was renamed Lion in 2011. Although the Milton Brewery has been in operation on the same site since 1877 much of the production of XXXX Bitter now takes place in the Tooheys brewery in Western Sydney and XXXX Gold is also produced in South Australia. Source: www.slq.qld.gov.au/blog/castlemaine-perkins-brewery-histo...

In 1909, a reporter noted the “passing of English beers in the Australian Commonwealth”: "It is pleasing to note that Bulimba beer, Gold Top Ale and Bulimba QB Lager are essentially Australian beverages, being produced from Australian materials. The barley is grown on the Darling Downs and is malted at Toowoomba, the hops come from the hop gardens on the banks of the Huon River in Tasmania, and the sugar is of course, a Queensland product. Even the casks, a very substantial item in a brewery of this size, are made from Australian timber. There is therefore, a strong incentive for loyal Australians to patronise Bulimba beer." Gold Top, known for the short-lived but distinctive gold coloured foil around the top of the bottle and later for the gold crown cap, quickly became a hot commodity. The ingredients for the English pale ale, as of 1900, were sugar, English malt and hops from New Zealand, Kent and Bohemia. There are references to similar beers prior to the turn of the century, back when the sugar was a mix of local and Mauritian (the latter being allegedly the superior), suggesting that Gold Top was a new brand rather than a new beer for Bulimba Brewery. The relatively hoppy reduced strength beer was apparently a remedy for any digestive malady you care to name. Source: drunkenspeculation.wordpress.com/2014/08/30/a-brief-histo...

Wartime limits on beer production were imposed in March 1942, requiring breweries to reduce their output to two-thirds of previous levels. The resulting beer shortages led to widespread profiteering and black-marketing. Some hotel keepers diverted beer from public bars to lounge bars where it was sold at inflated prices. Others more unscrupulous withheld beer from their customers, and passed it on at greater profit to the black-market. Beer shortages also encouraged the illegal activity of home-brewing, and many home-brewers were convicted of making beer without a licence. Among them was a 66-year-old man who was found in 1941 at his house in Sydney with sugar, hops, malt, galvanised vats, and more than one-thousand bottles of beer. He copped a larger fine than most home-brewers of the time because he was selling his beer. The most enduring effect of war, insofar as beer in Australia is concerned, was probably its damaging effect on the image and reputation of the beverage. Second World War shortages and black-marketing set against the background of early closing of pubs, a First World War imposition, stigmatised beer, and especially its consumption in pubs. Through the immense up-welling of interest in beer which presently engulfs us, however, this damage is gradually and persistently being undone. Source: www.brewsnews.com.au/2012/07/17/beer-and-war-in-australia/